An Unusual Day in the Neighborhood. By Dean Bender, AVLS Executive Director
2020. Where do we begin when we stop to reflect on the past year’s trials and accomplishments of the American Vein & Lymphatic Society? Perhaps we start with the November 2019 release of “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and borrow a phrase from the late Fred Rogers, “Can you say PANDEMIC?” Who would have ever guessed coming out of our Annual Congress in Phoenix, AZ last November that we would now be seven months into a global pandemic that has reshaped how we live our lives and how we interact with each other daily? Perhaps today’s word in a Beautiful Day would be, “Can you say ZOOM?” Dean Bender
membership as we are still not out of the woods. Fortunately, throughout this past year, as many were seeing cutbacks, the Society’s membership experienced slight growth at 1%. It is critical that the membership base remains strong and committed for the Society to be able to provide the support and resources for our members. Throughout the MyAVLS magazine, you will read about the various accomplishments of the Society’s various committees. I would like to highlight a few of the most significant here related to each of our core pillars, Advocacy, Research, and Education. Following 18 months of intense work led by Dr. Marlin Schul, President AVLS, the Advocacy Committee saw the release of new LCDs from First Coast and Novitas that, if approved, will significantly improve access to quality care for our patients with chronic venous disease.
Needless to say, the past year for the AVLS has been one of our busiest and most productive years as a Society and, without a doubt, one of our most challenging. Starting with our greatest asset, our members, the Society rallied together in late March and undertook the task of supporting each other with the development of a COVID-19 resource library (www.myavls.org/covid19). Our “A Part|Together” campaign provided members with the information they needed to know specific to the needs of a practitioner in venous & lymphatic disease. In addition to a series of articles ranging from telemedicine and practice guidelines to PPE and financial support, the Society hosted a series of webinars bringing legal and business experts directly to the membership to help guide us all through this storm. While we are still trying to push through to the other side of this pandemic, the Society continues to maintain the resource library and bring current and relevant information to our
In research, the Operations Committee led by Dr. Joe Jenkins completed the development of the PRO Venous Registry 2.0. The more modern platform expands the breadth of our research capability beyond superficial venous disease into deep and pelvic disease and more in-depth research into lymphedema and compression therapy. New writing groups led by Dr. Marlin Schul will undertake a variety of research projects for the Society utilizing the data from the PRO 2.0 Registry. And in education, the Society, through a grant from the Foundation for Venous & Lymphatic Disease, launched its first Immersive education course utilizing virtual reality technology. The Immersive Sclerotherapy Course: VR 360, 7
